V. I. Lenin

Tasks Of The Trade Unions

Delivered:December, 
1918 and January 1919First Published:1933; Published according to the          	manuscriptSource:Lenin’sCollected Works, 4th English Edition, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1972 Volume 28, pages 382-385Translated:Clemens Dutt; Edited by Robert  DaglishTranscription/HTML Markup:David Walters & Robert 	CymbalaOnline Version:V. 	I.	Lenin 	Internet ArchiveMay, 2002

The theses by Tomsky, Radus-Zenkovich and Nogin each express the
      viewpoint of the particular job they represent: trade unions,
      commissariat and co-operatives with mutual benefit
      societies.

Each group of theses therefore suffers from a lopsided emphasis
    of only one side of the picture and an overshadowing and
    suppression of the fundamental points at issue.

A correct picture of these fundamental issues concerning the
    trade union movement today and its attitude towards the Soviet
    government requires above all proper consideration for the
    specific features of thepresent, givensituation in the
    transition from capitalism to socialism.

All three gave insufficient attention or virtually no attention
    at all to this vital aspect of the matter.

The chief feature of the present situation in this respect is as
      follows.

The Soviet government as the dictatorship of the proletariat is
    victorious both among the urban proletariat and among the poor
    peasants but has far from won over by communist propaganda and
    strong organisation all trades and the whole mass of
    semi-proletarians.

Hence the special importance, particularly at the moment, of
    stepping up our propaganda and organisational work so that, on the
    one hand, we extend our influence over those workers and employees
    who are theleast Soviet(that is, the furthest from
    fully accepting Soviet policy), and subordinate them to the
    general proletarian movement. And so that, on the other hand, we
    shake up and rouse ideologically, and rally organisationally, the
    most backward sections and individuals among the proletariat and
    semi-proletariat, such as the unskilled workers, the town
    servants, rural semi-proletariat, and so on.

Then, the second principal feature of the present situation is
    that the construction of socialist society is based on a solid
    foundation, that is, we have not only done more than map it out
    and set it as our immediate practical goal; we have formed several
    highly important bodies of this construction (the Economic
    Councils, for example), had certain experience of their
    relationship with mass organisations (trade unions,
    co-operatives), and obtained certain practical results. All the
    same, however, our construction is not yet finished by any means,
    we still have very many flaws to iron out, the very essentials are
    not yet guaranteed (for instance, proper collection and
    distribution of grain, production and distribution of fuel), and
    the main body of working people are still not playing a big enough
    part in the construction.

With this in view, the trade unions have the following tasks at
      present.

There can be no talk of any sort of trade union
    "neutrality". Any campaign for neutrality is either a hypocritical
    screen for counter-revolution or a complete lack of
    class-consciousness.

We are now strong enough in the basic core of the trade union
    movement to be able to bring under our influence and proletarian
    discipline both the backward and the passive non-Communists inside
    the unions, and those workers who are still in some respects
    petty-bourgeois.

So the chief aim now is, not to break the resistance of a
    strong enemy, for Soviet Russia no longer has such an enemy among
    the proletarians and semi-proletarians, but to overcome by
    stubborn, persistent, more extensive educational and
    organisational work the prejudices of certain pettybourgeois
    sections of the proletariat and semi-proletariat.

    The unions must steadily extend the insufficiently wide base of
    the Soviet government (that is, increase the number of workers and
    poor peasants directly taking part in state administration),
    educate the backward working people (by practical experience in
    management as well as by books, lectures and newspapers), and
    discover new organisational / orins both for these new tasks of
    the trade union movement in general, and for attracting a far more
    numerous mass of semi-proletarians, like the poor peasants, for
    example.

Thus, they must attractalltrade union members into
    state administration-through the system of commissars, through
    participation in lightning control groups, and so on and so
    forth. They must attract the housemaid, first into co-operative
    work, in supplying the population with provisions, supervising
    their production, etc., and then into more responsible and less
    "narrow" work-but of course with the necessary gradualness.

They must get the specialists into state work together with the
    workers and keep an eye on them.

Transitional forms demand new bounds of organisation. Thus, for
    instance, the Poor Peasants' Committees are playing a tremendous
    role. There may be a danger that their merging with the Soviets
    would somewhere end up by leaving the mass of semi-proletariansoutsideof the bounds of permanent organisation. But we
    cannot forgo the task of organising the poor peasants under the
    pretext that they are not hired hands. It is possible and even
    necessary to search, search and search again for new forms, if
    only, for example, by forming unions of poor peasants (perhaps the
    very same Poor Peasants' Committees) as unions ofthe very
    poor(a) uninterested in grain profiteering and high grain
    prices, (b) interested in improving their lot by common measures
    for everyone, (c) interested in strengthening socialised farming,
    (d) interested in a permanent alliance with the urban workers,
    etc.

Such a poor peasant union could make up aspecial
    sectionof the All-Russia Trade Union Council to prevent it
    overwhelming the completely proletarian elements. The form can be
    modified and must be sought through applying it to practice, to
    the new task of embracing the new, transitional social types (the
    village poor are not the proletariat, and now not even
    semi-proletariat, but those who stand closest to the
    semi-proletariat since capitalism is not yet dead, and at the same
    timethose whoare most sympathetic to the transition to
    socialism)...[Here the manuscript
    ends—Editor].